It is not a back-and-forth.

Under Standing Order 35(3), I wish to amend to Thursday's business to include statements on the failed Government election promise regarding €200 per month for childcare. We were told by Deputy Simon Harris that we would see a roadmap within 100 days. The action plan produced before Christmas was really useful in some ways but completely ignored this €200 per month plan. We have announcements with no details about State-led services and communities around this country continue to go without. I ask that there is tim…

I am thankful for the opportunity to speak on the Bill before us today. As I start, I acknowledge that we all speak on important issues like this from a place of bias. Personal experience, our values and our world views all incorporate much of what we say on these issues. I spent a great deal of time as a youth worker working in direct provision settings with children and young people. While I speak about this issue, I am speaking about it with those children and young people in mind, people whom I came to know and…

The Bill has not put any children's rights safeguarding measures in place whatsoever. It does not speak about children first or rights. It speaks of detention in the same breath as talking about the best interests of the child. The Bill legislates for the detention of children. Section 24 specifically relates to the detention of children in the screening procedure. Section 24(10) states that if a parent of a child is not co-operating, the parent will be detained and Tusla will be notified. For what purpose will Tus…

I thank the Minister for his statement in response to our motion this morning. I worked in disability services as a social care worker for many years. We have heard many voices, specifically of those with disabilities, come through this morning. I would like to share a common trend among family members of people with disabilities who often shared a consistent experience of having to navigate the mechanisms of the State, the outcomes of which they felt were often down to luck more than design and who, at times, had …

Before discussing the merits of the Bill, I take this opportunity, the first since her announcement last week, to applaud the Minister and her officials for embarking on what appears to be quite an exciting venture in regard to a public model of childcare. I reiterate the opportunity they have in respect of the very effective work the joint Oireachtas committee, of which I am a member, is doing. In the very short time we have had so far, we have shown we can work together constructively to offer a very informed cri…

Fintan O'Toole wrote a piece in the Irish Times this week about why Ireland is, in his opinion, governed so badly. One of the points he raised was that elected representatives of all parties and none spend so much time making representations to various services and bodies on behalf of constituents when our priority should be policy-making and developing legislation, whether nationally, regionally or locally. Water is one of the services public representatives make the most representations and raise the most cases a…

The potential for Maynooth education campus is being greatly limited by a lack of investment. On site we have three phenomenal schools, Gaelscoil Ruairí, Maynooth Community College and Maynooth Post Primary School. Maynooth is one of the very few towns in Ireland where a student could attend primary, post-primary and third level education entirely as Gaeilge. According to my friend, Councillor Peter Melrose in Maynooth, the Gaelscoil has been in temporary buildings since 2019, despite plans being ready to execute f…

I thank the Minister of State for being here. I appreciate him and the other Ministers of State present giving of their time this evening. The Minister of State will be well aware of the outrage that met the Minister's announcement regarding the decision to defer the delivery of DART+ South West, a project costed at €1 billion that was set to increase the capacity on rail services running from Hazelhatch and Celbridge, County Kildare, to Dublin from 5,000 to 20,000 passengers at peak times. Essentially, this servic…

I was preparing myself to get back up to criticise the Minister of State for giving me a blank reply but, in fact, what he has done is given me a very detailed reply and I thank him for it. There is a lot that I can take back with me to constituents and to my colleagues, Councillors Peter Melrose and Nuala Killeen, who have been working tirelessly on this for many years. I had not seen confirmation in writing before tonight that the depot for DART+ West will be in the Maynooth-Kilcock area. When we spoke with the N…

I have been keeping an eye on the statements. Many of the issues have been raised and I do not want to go over them, so I will give these two minutes over to young people's opinions on AI for the Minister of State, Deputy Richmond's, interest. The National Youth Council has been leading a programme where it has had youth juries on AI, specifically on themes such as education, the environment, jobs and misinformation. The last of those juries, this weekend, is on laws and regulation. So far, they have come up with v…

I have raised many Topical Issue matters and very rarely is the line Minister here for them so I thank her for that. St. Farnan's Post Primary School in Prosperous is the only post-primary school in that community. The work undertaken at this school under the stewardship of Mr. Andrew Purcell is nothing short of exemplary but the conditions in which people have to work, learn and develop are simply substandard. The people of Prosperous and north-west Kildare have been led down the garden path about a proposed new s…

I thank the Minister for that comprehensive reply. I am trying to read between the lines as to what that will mean for St. Farnan's specifically where the implementation plan is concerned. We need this. The community needs this. I accept Deputies throughout the House will be saying the exact same thing to her about various projects in their community but we are ten years on with St. Farnan's and this project will have a monumental impact on the communities this school serves in areas of deprivation and poverty. The…

I commend the work of Deputy Whitmore in preparing this legislation that has come before us today. "We're full and still they come" were the words of Limerick Animal Welfare in the media yesterday. It described 2025 as unprecedented, with a year-round surge in puppies and kittens being surrendered to it. This is in advance of what it and many other rescues will see in the swathe of animal surrenders, mostly dogs, in January and February of next year. Rescues are doing a remarkable job on behalf of this State but to…

Jesus.

Cancer patients in Kildare not only have to contend with a significant commute to access treatment, but they will also likely face the double cost of paying significant car parking charges. According to the Irish Cancer Society, this puts a substantial and unnecessary strain on a person receiving cancer treatment. The programme for Government committed to exploring further ways to reduce hospital car parking charges. Will the Taoiseach update the House on what this Government has done to move towards a reduction in…

I commend my colleague, Deputy Sinéad Gibney, who has done and continues to do such extraordinary work in this area. I am speaking to the Minister of State today through the lens of children’s and young people’s rights. Here we go again. In the past year, the latest moral fear and pan-societal concern for our young people unfolded when we all watched the series “Adolescence” and learned about the risks associated with algorithms and what they are potentially doing to vulnerable children and young people. Unfortunat…

Before I speak to this Topical Issue, I wish to commend Deputy Ó Muirí on raising a really important issue in the House. I fully agree with his sentiments, having been a youth worker for so long. I will be the first to stand here and critique, but on this issue I can attest to the improvements the previous couple of Governments have made in this regard. I know the app the Minister of State mentioned has a very place in her heart in terms of the impact it might have. I wish her continued success with the roll-out of…

There were 255. I raise this issue because it appears that this has become an acceptable norm in Naas General Hospital. Year after year, the same number of patients receiving care on trolleys. The numbers may fall or rise slightly, but it has become something of a predictable crisis. In the same way that young families have to plan early for basics like crèche and school places in Kildare, I ask the Minister of State, the HSE and hospital management team in Naas to plan better for this predictable crisis. Kildare h…

I thank the Minister of State for her considered response. It is really useful. I hope she can see I am not trying to play politics with this.